Personally I'm more inclined to join if the first round is HHTawlbwrdd or HHTablut. I feel more excluded by a championship where it's purely Copenhagen since I am not a fan of any of the strong king variants I have played.

After played a series of games, I fear that the Tablut 9x9 is too short a game for a World Championship tournament. One severe mistake and you're done with. The game should be long enough for a player to still have a chance when played well. This leaves the Tawlbwrdd 11x11 (Bell or Lewis cross).

I realise that increasing the number of players proceeding from the first stage will increase the number of Copenhagen games in the final stage, but I think two players should proceed from each group to the final stage.

Xerxes wrote:I realise that increasing the number of players proceeding from the first stage will increase the number of Copenhagen games in the final stage, but I think two players should proceed from each group to the final stage.

Could be done this way:
24 players.
Round 1: 3 groups of 8 players, makes 14 games of HHTawlbwrdd to each player. Two best players from each group proceed to Valhallah.
Round 2: Valhallah 6 or 7 players, makes 10 or 12 Copenhagen games to each player. Best player is Champion 2016.
(The other 18 players also proceed, to 3 groups of each 6 players, makes 10 Copenhagen games to each player.)

I think either Tablut 9x9 or Tawlbwrdd 11x11 would work well to shorten the overall length of the tournament. The Tablut 9x9 is also more likely to get more players in the first round, due to it being a shorter game. Though, as Hagbard says, it may be too short.

Many Copenhagen players find Historical Hnefatafl difficult and vice versa. So as to not exclude too many skilled Copenhagen players from the final because they're having a hard time with the Hist.Hnef., it could be wise to widen the door a bit and allow 8 players to the final, 2 players from each of 4 groups.